Lifesaving Poems: Jean Sprackland’s ‘The Birkdale Nightingale’

I met Jean Sprackland in 2000, somewhere in the bowels of the Poetry Society in London. We were meeting to … More

Lifesaving Poems: Stephen Berg’s ‘Eating Outside’

Above the desk where I am writing this is a shelf on which sits more than a yard of poetry … More

Last night saw the launch of Magma 53 at the Troubadour Coffee House in London with guest readers and Lifesaving … More

A year ago I began the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts. I got the idea for it after reading … More

As I wrote in my recent post, I chose to call this series Lifesaving Poems because I actually believe … More

May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is … More

Let a Place be Made Let a place be made for the one who draws near,the one who is deprived … More

I first heard Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’ sometime in 2005, when I was lucky enough to be part of a … More

As I have said before in the Lifesaving Poems series of blogposts, some poets come into your life through the … More

Here is what happened halfway through my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in April 2006. I went for a midway scan … More

I absolutely love this poem by Andy Brown. I am not sure when I read or heard it first. Possibly … More

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read these poems. It was on the balcony of the … More

I saw the sign above on a wall during a visit I recently made to a school to talk to … More

I found this poem in a collection of poems called The Matter of This World in a second hand … More

I was astonished to find in an old diary today that by 8 March 2006, less than one month after … More

To celebrate World Book Day last week I read the poem below, by Thomas Lux, to my students. It … More

This week saw the death of poet and Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szmborska. She was 88. Her compatriot Czeslaw Milosz described … More

With Only One Life Hold with both hands The tray of every day And pass in turn Along this … More